The plants1 EP from daliah is a very ambient undertaking filled with drawn out sounds and a calming nature. It’s a great piece to put on in the mornings and help slowly draw you into your day.

Listening to this, I can’t help but be reminded of one of my all-time favorite, weird, records entitled Plantasia, a collection of songs intended to promote house plant growth born from the mind of Moog pioneer Mort Garson.

Musically, there’s very little comparison of the two (and why would there be?) but I like to believe they both create environments that promote healthy, calm environments for whatever organism spends time with them.

The second full-length from Cloudmouth, Dark Energy, was released today and is coupled with a show over at The East Room featuring a host of great bands. We debuted the track “Nice Looking Mountain” on Episode 107 of the WOTT Music podcast and we’re happy to report that the entire album stands up as a worthwhile listening endeavor.

To be clear, Cloudmouth is fighting an uphill battle. Lead vocalist Kyle Numann has somewhat of a baritone vocal delivery and the band mixes a lot of styles together. You’re just as likely to find an accordion backing a funeral dirge as you are a synthesizer underlying a whipping acoustic guitar. This makes for an enjoyably diverse listen but it can be a hurdle for a new listener as there’s no directly digestable genre to toss them into.

Tracks like “Shall Not Be Named” and the aforementioned “Nice Looking Mountain” are good entry points for the more accessible pop-rock style songs but it’d be a shame to skip over “Don’t Make Me Watch“, a song ostensibly about death told via bopping 70’s style and riffing bass, or “Tree Song“, a downright pleasant contemplation on.. death.

While there’s a lot to digest here stylistically and lyrically, it’s clearly a band that has refined and expanded their sound. Sit with this one for a bit and be pleased.

Leveraging context clues, I’m going to say that le skunk is a new band just getting their feet wet. There’s a total of six songs available from them and zero additional information – no Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. Maybe this is intentional or maybe they’re still getting it together.

However, that shouldn’t be read as a condemnation but, rather, as an exciting prospect for what they’ve got in store. Their latest (and technically first) EP, Putter, starts off like a lost AC/DC track but quickly reveals itself as a brilliant dose of pop rock with garage sensibilities. Both “Nothing to Lose” and “One of a Kind” are catchy as hell with their subtle keyboards, call-and-response chorus and constant driving guitars.

It may just be six songs so far but the track record is impressive. Let’s hope we hear a lot more from this outfit, whoever they may be.

Makeup and Vanity Set puts out a great deal of music; as of November 2017 he launched a subscription service that offers no less than seven full-length albums of content. That’s a lot of albums for six months. This fact that can often lead to the assumption that the quality of output does match the quantity. Fortunately that is not the case here.

PRIS, the latest offering to emerge from the subscription as a non-exclusive is largely dark and foreboding (as MAVS releases tend to be) but there’s a tone that is much less Horror Film and more Troubled Sci-Fi. The track Lover(s) exemplifies this subtle shift as it carries an overall lighter, almost optimistic, vibe that gets undercut by a sense of imbalance.

In general, original instrumental music can be tough to nail down when it’s not directly tied to a visual narrative because you’re literally relying on the sounds to tell you a story. Taking cues from the song titles and the change in vibe, there’s certainly a story being told with PRIS, it’s just up to you to unearth it.

While I patiently wait for the new full-length album from Cortney Tidwell I am happy to report she’s putting out music under the moniker Fever Queen; complete with it’s own Soundcloud. The latest release is a 14 minute, largely improvised, track called “Be Gentle” written in honor of her mother.

Fourteen minutes is a long time for any song but there’s a meditative state that this is capable of putting you in if you embrace it. Turn it up loud and let those booming drums wrap you up tight, like a good ole fashioned swaddling.

There’s not a wealth of music available from Billy Bennett but after seeing some footage from his Record Store Day performance at Fond Object, I was intrigued to find what was available. To date, he has two EPs – Placate Your Illusion (from 2015) and Moral Calculus, released in July 2017. It’s not a ton to go off of to form an opinion but what’s here is quite good.

The headlining track of the latest EP, entitled “Patchwork Man”, flows between several movements of style all paying homage to different types of 60’s psychedelia, without feeling like they’re aping that style. The first two minutes are a Jefferson Airplane-esque romp before sliding into an absolutely breezy, saxophone fueled, sparseness. Maybe that’s overly flowery language to describe what’s happening but give it a whirl and I think you’ll agree.

The second track, “Centimental”, is a bit more languishing and crooning but every bit as subtlety experimental in the styles it fuses together. On the whole, the two tracks are a promising hint at a potential full-length album that could span any number of genres while still feeling like Billy Bennett.

Very pleased to premiere “Witness” (featuring Cherub), a brand new track from Meth Dad‘s forthcoming album SWATE DRAMES (due July 6th on Stay Magical Records). It’s an excellent example of the diverse style that Meth Dad is capable of and the inherit darkness they inject into their work. While Cherub’s vocal contribution lean towards their expectedly sexy R&B crooning, Meth Dad bends the track into something altogether ominous and brooding while still releasing a feeling of catharsis.

For more off examples of the goodness coming our way from the new album, you can tune into Volume 106 of the WOTT Music podcast in which we played “Bones” and I stumbled through the proper pronunciation of the album title or hit up their Bandcamp to hear “So Real.”